Pistols 'n' Petticoats

I was a pretty young kid when this show was on, but I can remember how much I loved it. I was surfing around on this site and came across Spring Byington's biography and I thought it was she who co-starred in the show as Ann Sheridan's mother, but come to find out, it was Ruth McDevitt. But I did remember the name of the show. I wish it would come out on DVD so I could see the show again. I loved all of the characters on the show. It didn't seem hokey or stupid or sappy to me, it seemed smart and funny, and so did all of the people on the show. Of course, like I said, I was just a kid. I was so sad when Ann Sheridan died and the show ended. I know sometimes if someone leaves a show, whether its a death or a career change, they will replace the person with another actor, but it sure wouldn't have worked in this case, so it was just as well the show ended, although all too early.

I watched this show when I was 16 years old and have never laughed this hard since. I would laugh myself sick when this show was on. I was saddened when it went off the air. It was a lead-in to Gunsmoke and was a family tradition to watch the Saturday (I think) night Westerns. My mother didn't find it as funny but my dad did.

I loved this show about a family of gunslingers that, as in the credit song recalled "Grandma shooting the buttons off a rustler's vest." The show was rather stock 60s TV mind pablum but still enjoyable to sit down and vege out on, laughing at the goofy situations. Not to mention, it was a pleasure to see Robert Lowery, Ruth McDevitt and the immortal Lon Chaney Jr., all vets whose faces you've seen hundreds of times before. And then, there was the beautiful Ann Sheridan who tragically died of cancer, still working up to the last. In some of the last sequences, where she was only in small scenes, she was so weak, she could hardly stand. It was hard to watch but still, it was an inspiration to see this courageous woman.

Pistols 'n' Petticoats debuted on CBS back in 1966 and back in those days CBS was known as the rural network. With such shows as Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres, this was the network of red state America in that decade. You could forget about the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Revolution, marijuana and other drugs, on this network it's like they never existed.

Unfortunately this show which had some really good moments did not quite finish its first season due to the death of its star Ann Sheridan, the movies former 'Oomph Girl'. As ill timed a demise as ever happened in Hollywood.

For those who never saw the show it concerned a rustic family named Hanks. Ann Sheridan and her parents Douglas Fowley and Ruth McDevitt and her daughter Carole Wells. They're a family of sharpshooters with a lot of rustic charm, right in keeping with the commitment of CBS to rural entertainment. In the first episode Carole Wells has returned from the east where the family has sent her to finishing school to learn some social graces.

When sufficiently provoked however Wells could match any of her family shot for shot. The finish came off her in a crisis moment.

Another regular on the show was Gary Vinson who played the inept son of a famous lawman who inherited his job. Carole despite his klutziness had a thing for him. Just a civilian version of Captain Wilton Parmenter from F Troop.

It wasn't a great show, but it had some good comic moments. And it was the farewell gig of one of the screen's reigning beauties Ann Sheridan.

I'm surprised by how many others remember this show. I still remember most of the theme song "Here's the legend about the Hanks..." and I remember the line "Henrietta could fire a gun with one hand milkin' a goat, and hit a coyote on the run in Pistols'n'Petticoats." A very catchy tune to the theme song and I remember my father started whistling it after watching the show. To this day he still whistles that tune and I recently asked him if he remembered where it came from. He had no clue! The show itself was a comedy/western and full of laughs each week. I remember watching the news one evening, in an era when they seldom showed footage, and they showed a photo of Ann Sheridan in her Henrietta Hank garb. The announcer said she had died that day and mentioned she was currently starring as Henrietta in Pistols 'n' Petticoats. I remember tuning in the next time it aired and the opening credits still showed the footage of Ann Sheridan, as Henrietta, driving a buggy. I thought they had simply replaced her with a look alike. Unfortunately, after the season run, Ann Sheridan was irreplaceable and the show went off the air. The theme song is a very catchy tune and I'm surprised it was not released on its own. "Here's the Legend about the Hanks in Pistols'n'Petticoats. Henrietta could fire a gun with one hand milkin'a goat and hit a coyote on the run in Pistols'n'Petticoats. They say that grandma was the best at shootin' buttons off a rustlers vest, grandpa kept his gun in trim, nobody messed around with him." Others have commented that they'd like to see this on DVD - well it is. It was released a couple of years ago by Platinum Disc as part of their TV Classic Westerns series. You can get four episodes of Frontier Doctor and six of Pistols 'N' Petticoats on the DVD. Search on ebay under Pistols 'n' Peticoats, not Pistols and etc... and you'll find it. Great to see it again.